Lagrange City Council Member Bashes Journalist for Questioning Tax Money
Leon Childs has bashed, blocked, and deleted a journalist for questioning about where tax dollars are going. Tax dollars for a non-profit board he is a member of.
Imagine trying to redress a government official and exercise your freedom of speech. Then an elected city councilman bashes, blocks, and deletes comments on a government Facebook page. That is what appears to have happened with Leon Childs and the City of Lagrange. Also imagine that questioning your elected official where tax dollars are going, only to responded with it’s a laughable matter and a joke.
Georgia Transparency (GT) began looking into a non-profit organization that relies on tax dollars to stay afloat. Lagrange city councilman Leon Childs is a board member of this non-profit organization. GT reached out to April Ross with Bee Tv 33 in Lagrange. Bee Tv’s Facebook reply appears to not want to cover such items. Which is perfectly legit as Bee Tv can cover what they want to report on.
Then Leon Child’s enters the conversation supporting Bee Tv’s stance and begins bashing GT. Leon’s comments aim that GT is liar, a fat boy, and that this is laughable, one big joke. It appears that Bee Tv has deleted the comment thread about GT and Leon commenting back and forth.
Then the conversation carried over to the City of Lagrange Government Facebook page. Where Leon continued to bash GT under a posting of a Free Movie Night on December 18, 2024. The posting shows eighteen (18) comments, whereas there are only two (2) that remain on the page posted by GT. Luckily snapshots were taken before the deletion of such comments. The comments appear to show the city of Lagrange and Leon Childs in a negative light. All for simply asking about tax dollars for a board Leon sits on.
GT also posted some comments on Leon Child’s political Facebook page. It appears these comments have been removed and GT has been blocked.
It appears that if Leon doesn’t like what a member of the public or press has to say, he will block and delete your comments. An intent to file a lawsuit has been submitted to Leon Child’s and the city of Lagrange for 1st Amendment violations. A suit will be filed if the city of Lagrange and Leon chooses to not attempt to mitigate the violations recorded. GT has filed a lawsuit against another city for similar actions and is currently in litigation in the Federal Court Newnan District. That suit can be found on the PACER.
Why would an elected official bash the public and press for asking about tax dollars? This puts a black eye on the city of Lagrange for Leon’s actions. All snapshots can be found in the files section of this article.
Files
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